British 50s B&W film about metal fatigue?
 

Hi
does anyone remember a 50s type B&W film, with a story line that aped that of the Comet?

In that after a series of mysterious crashes on a passenger jet, the authorities test a airframe to destruction to find the cause... with the tail falling off due to metal fatigue as the climax of the film?

It wasn't 'No highway in the sky' or 'Cone of silence'.

I'm literally :ugh: with fustration.

Thanks

Wasn't that the one about an aircraft called the Reindeer and starred James Stewart?

Or is that No Highway I'm thinking of.

Part filmed at Blackbushe I believe; the Reindeer was a wierd looking mock up with two sets of elevators/horizontal stabilisers one above the other.

which I think was Neville Shute (Norway)'s "No Highway". I recall seeing the film as quite a youngster

No Highway - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of course there might have been two novels/films about tails falling off aircraft due to metal fatigue

No Highway
 

It could be you're thinking of 'No Highway'. Apparently at the inquiry into the Comet crashes, one of the legal people quoted the book by Neville Shute, written some years previously, where he 'prophesied' metal fatigue causing aircraft accidents. Neville Shute Norway was a very far-seeing man; some of his other books prophesied events which have gone close to the way he wrote of them. But to talk of that is going off the thread!

I'm sure it must have been 'No Highway In The Sky'

One of my favourite scenes is where Stewart is telling the stewardess (Glynis Johns) about 'pulling the lever' when he retracted the undercarriage and sat it on its belly. Must get the DVD out and watch it again.

Oh and if there is another film, please tell us what it is, I want it :)

If you Google "No Highway" it will confirm that this is the film - "No Highway in the Sky" in the US release I think

Internet Movie Database (IMDB)
 

All the details are here
No Highway (1951)

I agree with ' No Highway ', surely must be that book & film ?

Nevil Shute Norway wasn't just a gifted writer, he was a proper aircraft engineer / designer draughtsman, his autobiography ' Slide Rule ' is fascinating, he joined the design team of the R100 airship, observing the rival R101 with dismay; of course he and others proved correct, tragically.

N.S.W.'s books often seem wierdly phrophetic, and there was indeed a book written by someone else ( in the 1970's I think ) ' The Airmen Who Would Not Die ' about the R101 from the mystical side, if you're into that sort of thing it's well worth reading.

Nevil Shute Norway went on in the 1930's & 40's to found Airspeed Ltd at the now built over Portsmouth Airfield, so put his money where his mouth was to say the least !

His books ' Round The Bend ', The Rainbow & The Rose' & ' Beyond The Black Stump ' have a vision of both what we would all dream of in pioneer aviation, and a future few could have imagined at the time of writing.

He also foresaw the Blitz in ' What Happened to The Corbetts ', though my favourite for sheer story is ' Requiem For a Wren ' - I won't give anything away about the ending !

My friend's father was Bob Milne ( a tribute to whom is on the ' Tartan Terror's ' site, he test flew over 2,000 Oxfords among a lot of others ! ), a Test Pilot for him before, during & after WWII, and their ' let's build & fly it ' attitude makes one wish for a time machine to go with them; N.S.W. Foresaw the material failings of airships and pressurised metal aircraft, and deserves a lot more credit in the aviation world.

I want to thank you lads but you are ALL WRONG! :-)

I distinctly remember a early 50s film. And it'll be the usual story... mysterious airliner crashes and the struggle to find the cause. But the 11th hour scene, the finale, is there is a big plane on a big vibrating test rig and it's shaking the plane. Then just as they're about to give it up, the tail falls off, this proving the heros thesis was right.

The plot was something along those lines... it was the type of film you'd find Bernard lee or Geoffrey keen in. :-)

But there was deinite a test rig and the whole tailplane falls off. NHITS, while that double tailplane of the Reindeer strikes a chord, it doesn't seem like it. I may be wrong, do they test the Reindeer on a test-rig with the tail breaking off?

Cheers, I'll carry on with my :ugh: :-)

"I want to thank you lads but you are ALL WRONG! :-)"

Aviate thinks...
That they were all correct......... :rolleyes:

YouTube - "Rutland Reindeer"-1951

1:55 just near the end of the clip. A Reindeer tail.

YouTube - No Highway In The Sky ~ 6 of 6

Sound only but you can hear the tailplane collapse!

That was the whole basis of the story in the book; Mr Honey has a theory that the tailplane has a fatigue problem and is testing a tailplane; they then discover that one has crashed in Canada and at very close to the number of hours that he has calculated - so he is sent out to investigate.

I've never seen the film, apart form the Rutland Reindeer model, is it any good?

Good film but as is often the case, even better book.

Neville Shute is definitely one of the most under-rated writers of our times.

Apart from No Highway, his best known works are On the Beach and A Town Like Alice, but he wrote about a dozen other novels.

Slight thread drift, but 4 or 5 years ago saw a dramatic production of Requiem for a Wren at Exbury (nr Lymington) where Shute was stationed in the RN during the war, and where he wrote the book. Many of the themes in the book are based on actual happenings. Various scenes were acted around the estate, and ended on Lepe Beach (this was the evening of 5 June) in the rain watching a representation of the D-Day outload - hairs on the back of my neck vertical. Great writer.

I think part of the charm of his books is that the characters are generally fairly modest individuals.

I read most of them when I was about 14, and have recently acquired several - re-reading On The Beach 30 odd years later was an oddly unsettling experience, particularly if one considers the context of when it was written.

Some pics

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/n...icture19-3.jpg

Yes, thats exactly what happens in No Highway, watched it again yesterday. Thanks for the reminder :ok:

I knew I was right!

Now where can I get a copy?